1. Matthew Guido DiBenedetto was born on July 27,1991 and is an American professional stock car racing driver.
60 Facts About Matt DiBenedetto
1. 2.
Matt DiBenedetto competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No 99 Chevrolet SS for Viking Motorsports.
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Matt DiBenedetto has previously competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, ARCA Menards Series, and ARCA Menards Series East, as well as late model stocks, and winning the track championship at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2004.
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Matt DiBenedetto first showed an interest in auto racing after receiving a Little League trophy around age 8.
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Matt DiBenedetto's father knew that another player on his son's little league team was competing in mini kart racing so he bought him a used kart which a young Matt DiBenedetto drove to his first victory.
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Matt DiBenedetto later moved up to the UARA-Stars series, racing late models.
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In 2007, Matt DiBenedetto's family sold all their equipment due to financial stress, from then on starting in 2008 Dibenedetto drove for Fat Head Racing Driver Development Program in the UARA-Stars as a teammate to Darrell Wallace Jr.
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Matt DiBenedetto made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in 2009 at the Memphis Motorsports Park and drove the No 20 Pizza Ranch-sponsored Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
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Matt DiBenedetto raced part-time in the No 20 car in 2010.
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Matt DiBenedetto had a solid car and ran well all night.
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Matt DiBenedetto ran six races for Joe Gibbs in 2010, with two top-ten finishes.
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Matt DiBenedetto led the most laps and was in second position when he spun off the track on the final lap at the final corner of the race.
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In 2013, Matt DiBenedetto joined Vision Racing to drive the No 37 car part-time in the Nationwide Series and started and parked the few races he was in.
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Matt DiBenedetto scored two top-15 place finishes at Road America and Mid-Ohio.
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Matt DiBenedetto would compete as a start and park driver in various other races throughout the year.
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On March 20,2024, it was announced that Matt DiBenedetto would drive for Viking Motorsports for five races through the No 38 entry with RSS Racing, starting at Richmond Raceway.
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On May 1,2024, it was revealed that Matt DiBenedetto would continue to be the team's primary driver for the remainder of the season.
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However, a few days later, it was announced that Matt DiBenedetto will run the rest of the season with the team.
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Matt DiBenedetto scored 2 more Top 10 finishes both being 7th place runs at the 2024 Hy-Vee PERKS 250 at Iowa Speedway and the 2024 Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan.
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Matt DiBenedetto moved up to the Sprint Cup Series in 2015.
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Matt DiBenedetto was originally intended to drive the No 83 Dustless Blasting and No 93 Toyotas for BK Racing on a part-time basis; he split the No 83 during the year with Camping World Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter.
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When Sauter eventually decided not to race at any other Cup race after the Daytona 500, Matt DiBenedetto took over the No 83 full-time and declared for ROTY contention.
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At Martinsville Speedway during a practice session, Matt DiBenedetto was involved in an incident with three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.
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The incident occurred when Matt DiBenedetto tried to merge on the track behind Carl Edwards and the gap closed ahead of him.
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Matt DiBenedetto tried to wreck me a few times, brake-checking me and flipping me off around the whole track.
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Matt DiBenedetto returned full-time with BK Racing in 2016, though he ran the No 93 for the Daytona 500 since Michael Waltrip was in the No 83 for the race.
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At Daytona, Matt DiBenedetto crashed with Chris Buescher on lap 92 in what Buescher called the "hardest hit of his career", though the two were not injured.
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Matt DiBenedetto returned to the No 93 for the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond while Dylan Lupton drove the No 83, while driving the No 93 at Talladega's Hellmann's 500 as Jeffrey Earnhardt was in the No 83.
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Matt DiBenedetto was cleared to return at the following race in Phoenix.
30.
On December 8,2016, Matt DiBenedetto announced he had parted ways with BK Racing.
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Statistically, Matt DiBenedetto has been Go Fas Racing's best driver since co-owner Frank Stoddard founded the team in 2011, with him picking up several top twenty and top thirty finishes.
32.
Matt DiBenedetto had a great race in the 2017 Food City 500 when he picked up a top twenty finish, his best finish since Daytona.
33.
At the Monster Energy Open leading up to the All-Star Race, Matt DiBenedetto drove a Reddit-sponsored car; he learned of the site when driver Josh Wise was voted into the 2014 All-Star Race by the community, who nearly voted Matt DiBenedetto into the 2016 race.
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On September 7,2018, Matt DiBenedetto announced that he would not be returning to Go Fas Racing in 2019.
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On October 10, it was announced that Matt DiBenedetto signed a two-year contract with Leavine Family Racing to drive the No 95 Toyota Camry starting in 2019.
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Matt DiBenedetto took the lead midway in the race and led a race-high 49 laps before being collected in the Big One with less than 15 laps to go.
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At the time of the announcement, Matt DiBenedetto stood 23rd in the standings.
38.
Two days after the announcement, Matt DiBenedetto led 93 laps at the Bristol Night Race, and appeared late in the final stage that he would finally get his first career win, but damage after contact with Ryan Newman would cause him to lose the position to Denny Hamlin with 11 laps to go.
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Matt DiBenedetto would go on to earn a career-best second-place finish.
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Matt DiBenedetto scored zero wins, three top 5's, seven top 10's, led 152 laps, had an average finish of 18.3 and finished 22nd in the standings, all of which were career highs up to that point for Matt DiBenedetto.
41.
On September 10,2019, Wood Brothers Racing signed Matt DiBenedetto to drive for the No 21 Ford full-time for the 2020 season, following Paul Menard's announcement that he will retire from full-time racing after the 2019 season.
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Matt DiBenedetto started the season with a 19th place finish at the 2020 Daytona 500, but he rebounded a week later to tie a career-best second-place finish at Las Vegas.
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Matt DiBenedetto was eliminated following the third race of the opening round at Bristol.
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Matt DiBenedetto tied his career-best finish of second the following week later at Las Vegas for the third time in his career and the second time in a row at the track; this time to Kurt Busch.
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The next week at Talladega, Matt DiBenedetto would run in the top 15 for the majority of the day, and made heavy gambles on fuel mileage to get to the top five for most of the final ten laps, and would make the pass on Chase Elliott to get the race lead with two laps to go, before Bubba Wallace would trigger the Big One.
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Matt DiBenedetto would be penalized later for forcing Byron below the yellow-line, relegating him to a 21st-place finish.
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Matt DiBenedetto ended his first season with the Wood Brothers 13th in the final points standings with a career-high 11 top tens.
48.
Matt DiBenedetto returned to the Wood Brothers in 2021 in what would be his final season with the team as Harrison Burton would take over the No 21 the following year.
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Matt DiBenedetto missed the Playoffs and finished 18th in the final standings, with a season-high finish of 4th at Kansas.
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Matt DiBenedetto would follow with a sixth-place finish at the 2022 Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas.
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Matt DiBenedetto struggled the next few weeks falling out of the Top 10 in points with a 30th place at Atlanta Motor Speedway after hitting the wall on the first lap falling 11 laps down due to damage.
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Matt DiBenedetto scored a 31st place finish the next week after running Top 10 late in the race before a rear gear failure ended it at Circuit of the Americas followed by a 15th place run at Martinsville Speedway then a 35th place finish at the 2022 Pinty's Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway after getting stuck together with Austin Wayne Self's truck.
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Matt DiBenedetto fell 2 laps down with a flat tire during the 2022 Dead On Tools 200 at Darlington Raceway but got back on the lead lap scoring 10th before he was sent back to 11th when Matt Crafton's penalty was appealed.
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Matt DiBenedetto finished 7th at Kansas Speedway followed by a 10th at Texas Motor Speedway scoring his 4th Top 10 of the season.
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Matt DiBenedetto would go on to score 2 more Top 10 finishes at Gateway International Raceway and Sonoma Raceway.
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On October 1, Matt DiBenedetto achieved his first national series win in the 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.
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Matt DiBenedetto started off the 2023 season getting caught up in 2 wrecks at the 2023 NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona finishing 20th followed by a 12th place finish in the 2023 Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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Matt DiBenedetto was born in Nevada City, California, to parents Sandy and Tony Matt DiBenedetto, and raised in Grass Valley, California.
59.
In 2018, he made a cameo in the television series Lethal Weapon as a character named Carl Edwards, which Matt DiBenedetto noted was coincidental and not a nod to the driver of the same name.
60.
In 2021, Matt DiBenedetto was baptized by fellow Cup Series driver Michael McDowell.